I've watched a ton of sPvP footage from many of you and I think nearly all the footage had at least a warrior on one of the teams but most of the time on both teams.
Guardians and Elementalists are close runner ups both probably being on about 80% of the teams.

Is my vision biased by the fact that the footage somehow contains more warriors then in reality or do you feel the same?

I'm pretty sure you guys talk about this a lot, afaik most of you run a warrior for a direct damage dealer, do you feel they outperform any other class in this role?
Maybe specially because they can still also provide a fair amount of control and support with various stuns and some shouts / elite banner? and also do this without stepping out of their damage dealer role to do so?

afaik Guardian was in the auto-include seat during the first BWEs and with some changes a people getting used to fighting against the Guardian (maybe the last part even more then the first?) they've at least gone down a bit on the popularity ladder.
Imo the Warrior isn't in this spot (fighting them is fairly straight forward), but the Elementalist might still have that 'we don't exactly know how to fight against it yet' thing going?

The beta [i]"metagame"[/i] was indeed somewhat Warrior heavy. There are several reasons for that:
[list]
[*]Quite simple but true, many people like to play a warrior. And since we haven't had enough time to figure out stuff many people were just sticking to what they actually like to play.
[*]Another effect of the limited time we had in the beta is that strategies are really simple at the moment. Warriors fit into those quite well due to their, let's say, [i]straight-forward[/i] builds. After launch we'll see more sophisticated and diverse strategies emerge and the, now common, Warrior builds might not fit into these anymore. Other classes will have strong builds at these times, the [i]metagame[/i] will have shifted away from the Warrior. But since metagame states are usually very volatile (save league) I wouldn't worry about this point all too much.
[*]Warbanner is incredibly strong. Plain and simple.
[*]Hundred Blades was all over Youtube. And Youtube kind of dictates what's popular atm.
[*]Warrior has been strong in every BWE so far, so why change if you already got used to it and it still works.
[*]Last but not least: Warrior's are good at dealing direct damage. Only 2 other professions are also good at that currently, Ele and Guardian. And since you usually have a support Guardian with you and running dual Guardian is nothing I'd recommend, you will see a Warrior and Ele on every team filling the direct damage spot (which is at the same time the roamer role because it just works great together). I disregard the Engineer here because I think he's not quite there yet.
[/list]

For the Ele it's mostly the same reasons plus they're the best profession in the game currently (or at least that's what everyone says , again youtube).
Guardians bring lots of useful buffs (STABILITY) plus tons of knockbacks and zoning abilities which is just very strong stuff in a Conquest game mode. Also, the general mindset is that they're the support class in GW2 and since every team should have a support (MOBA games told us that!) ...
Those three just make a lot of sense in a well balanced team setup which is what everyone is running atm to figure stuff out.

I think the main reason the elementalist is seen so much right now is because it's the only class that can fill every single role in a team very efficiently. It has more viable builds than any other class right now, so putting one in your team is really easy.

The warrior, like other people have mentioned, is very popular because it has a very easy to learn/play at a decent level build that offers a high reward. So for people just trying out PvP for the first time, it's very easy to slap on a greatsword and jump into action and feeling very powerful. The build efficiency is magnified by how inexperienced everyone else is at the moment, so the stun/HB combo will have a high chance to succeed. It's also worth noting that the warrior is probably the profession that feels the most similar to classes in other MMOs, the only big class difference from normal warriors being that it also has ranged weapons available.

I don´t realy know what class to play, and i wonder if warriors are any good in wvw. I can imagine that you die isntantly when jumping into enemies cause there is no healer standing behind you like in other mmos. Couldn´t try wvw yet.
(my class choice only depends on wvw and pve. If i find a spvp team i can play whatever is needed with instant gear and just around 10 buttons per class.)

[quote name='ßlackjack1296682189' timestamp='1345043524' post='3744655']
I don´t realy know what class to play, and i wonder if warriors are any good in wvw. I can imagine that you die isntantly when jumping into enemies cause there is no healer standing behind you like in other mmos. Couldn´t try wvw yet.
(my class choice only depends on wvw and pve. If i find a spvp team i can play whatever is needed with instant gear and just around 10 buttons per class.)
[/quote]

Warriors are one of the best classes in the game, but don't forget that you are not strictly a melee class like in WoW. Warriors have a completely viable rifle build, and can use bows as well. There isn't the issue that you're talking about, which DOES happen in WoW, where melee classes can't do anything in big fights without a pocket healer. It doesn't work that way in this game.

Fourreur said:

we have to switch to them making the decision to pop reck or not to pop reck

[quote name='Ctuhlu' timestamp='1345215274' post='3745600']
Warriors are one of the best classes in the game, but don't forget that you are not strictly a melee class like in WoW. Warriors have a completely viable rifle build, and can use bows as well. There isn't the issue that you're talking about, which DOES happen in WoW, where melee classes can't do anything in big fights without a pocket healer. It doesn't work that way in this game.
[/quote]

From what I've seen it looks like warriors only really play one role, damage dealers. Is this the case? I was on the fence between 3 professions and Warrior has always been my favorite in other MMOs but it just doesn't seem as useful as say a Guardian who can put out a lot of damage, be a tank or support. I feel after watching a lot of BWE videos that I have ruled out Warrior as one of my choices as it seems very nitch. Can you confirm or deny this fact for me?

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."

Yeah, I actually run a somewhat similar build to that. Warriors can be great support with their interrupts and shouts/standards. My build incorporates a little less support and a bit more damage, but this is a great example of the options out there.

[quote name='Draax' timestamp='1345220635' post='3745639']
From what I've seen it looks like warriors only really play one role, damage dealers. Is this the case? I was on the fence between 3 professions and Warrior has always been my favorite in other MMOs but it just doesn't seem as useful as say a Guardian who can put out a lot of damage, be a tank or support. I feel after watching a lot of BWE videos that I have ruled out Warrior as one of my choices as it seems very nitch. Can you confirm or deny this fact for me?
[/quote]

I would venture to say that Greatsword/Hundred Blades/Burst builds are just so strong that it becomes the clear choice for most players. That being said, Warriors have REALLY strong support builds (Aoe 1 minute stability), as well as tank builds that easily rival guardians. Having high default armor and HP is definitely a contributing factor.

Fourreur said:

we have to switch to them making the decision to pop reck or not to pop reck

[quote name='Ctuhlu' timestamp='1345234327' post='3745739']
I would venture to say that Greatsword/Hundred Blades/Burst builds are just so strong that it becomes the clear choice for most players. That being said, Warriors have REALLY strong support builds (Aoe 1 minute stability), as well as tank builds that easily rival guardians. Having high default armor and HP is definitely a contributing factor.
[/quote]

This has probably been asked in some shape or form, but I figured I'd ask anyway:

So two of the members of what will be our 5 man group for PVE/PVP both want to be Mesmer. I'm going to be Warrior, we have a probable Guardian, and then an undecided. One of the Mesmers is thinking about switching because he doesn't want to gimp us by having two Mesmers, but I don't want him to switch if he honestly wants to be a Mesmer.

Question being, looking at competitive 5v5 pvp, is doubling up on classes going to work? ArenaNet has said anything WILL work, but obviously some things aren't optimal, and in pvp suboptimal comps can be the deciding factor. More specifically, how good/viable will double Mesmer be in a pvp setting?

[quote name='Ekyz' timestamp='1345424395' post='3746806']
This has probably been asked in some shape or form, but I figured I'd ask anyway:

So two of the members of what will be our 5 man group for PVE/PVP both want to be Mesmer. I'm going to be Warrior, we have a probable Guardian, and then an undecided. One of the Mesmers is thinking about switching because he doesn't want to gimp us by having two Mesmers, but I don't want him to switch if he honestly wants to be a Mesmer.

Question being, looking at competitive 5v5 pvp, is doubling up on classes going to work? ArenaNet has said anything WILL work, but obviously some things aren't optimal, and in pvp suboptimal comps can be the deciding factor. More specifically, how good/viable will double Mesmer be in a pvp setting?
[/quote]

Doubling up on classes definitely works. Many classes have a wide array of role functions so you just need to ensure you have the roles you need covered. Most classes can fill any role in one way or another for the most part. Mesmer is an excellent 1v1, since this game isn't team fight after team fight after team fight, it's not a terrible class to double up. Not to mention moa is excellent to tilt the fight one way or another.

Do you think it's doable for people without a team or something to enter private tournaments, or do they need to be picked up by teams?
When I heard about private server I was excited at first, but it does look like a closed-community event.
And if you want to get picked up by a team (when you obviously have achieved a certain skill level) how does that work?
Friend-of-a-friend, picked up in PUG game ...?
Thx in advance ^^

[quote name='TheOniCast' timestamp='1345472471' post='3746994']
Do you think it's doable for people without a team or something to enter private tournaments, or do they need to be picked up by teams?
When I heard about private server I was excited at first, but it does look like a closed-community event.
And if you want to get picked up by a team (when you obviously have achieved a certain skill level) how does that work?
Friend-of-a-friend, picked up in PUG game ...?
Thx in advance ^^
[/quote]

I'm not really sure I understand what you're asking. But you can queue free tournaments solo. Note: there are "paid tournaments", in which you need a full 5 man roster -- but "paid" just refers to an in-game currency called Tournament Tickets, not actual money.

Fourreur said:

we have to switch to them making the decision to pop reck or not to pop reck

Am I able to change how my character looks during sPvP and wVwVw? I've heard that most rewards from outside the pvp systems at end-game is mostly cosmetic, can we enjoy these rewards in sPvP and wVwVw aswell?